TIME FOR A BLUE MOON RISING

Pep admits that City must find a true winning mentality: Big clubs like Real Madrid lift the trophy, take a shower and then think about winning again. It is a culture we are now learning

PEP GUARDIOLA wants Manchester City to emulate tonight’s opponents Real Madrid by becoming serial winners on Europe’s biggest stage.

Guardiola has frequently described Real as “kings” of the competition – with good reason.

They have lifted the trophy 13 times and reached 16 finals, while City have made it there just once, losing 1-0 to Chelsea last season (Foden and Aguero, below).

If Real are the kings then City are the young princes, desperate to take the throne.

And Guardiola knows if this season they are to finally win the Champions League, they must develop a mindset like Real’s, where success is viewed as a formality.

“At the big clubs, when you win, take a shower and at that moment you’re thinking of winning again,” said the Etihad boss ahead of tonight’s visit of the Spanish club for the first leg of their semi-final.

“That’s why the big clubs stay there for a long time. It’s a culture and we’re learning that.

“I felt that in Barcelona, and here we’re trying to build that culture where we have to win every game and fight every game.

“If we have to compete with history, we don’t have any chance. They are better. History speaks for itself. But we have the desire to compete against them.

“The history is there, we can’t change it, but we play 11 against 11, one ball is on the pitch and the players will decide if the decisionmaking is good or not. “We’re against players who have been in this position many, many times and

beyond, reaching finals and winning. They’ve been in it many times, this competition. Before the last decade we were not, we were never here.

“Now we’ve started to be here and it’s good. Winning or reaching the final will be a good lesson for us, that’s for sure, and for the future it will be good.

“We’ll need two exceptional games to reach the final and hopefully we can do it. It’s not necessary to say how much we respect Real Madrid, how good they are.”

City face a side with the likes of Karim Benzema – scorer of the decisive late goal against Chelsea in the quarter-finals – and Luka Modric (above), who have each won the Champions League four times. Benzema bagged hat-tricks against Paris Saint-germain and Chelsea in successive rounds.

Guardiola won the Champions League twice as Barcelona coach, in 2009 and 2011, but not since, despite racking up league titles and domestic cups at Bayern Munich and now City.

While publicly he plays down his pursuit of a third Champions

League crown,

Guardiola knows there will be those who will see failure if he does not manage it with City.

“As a manager, personally, I’ll never feel accomplished,” he said. “I’ll have another dream or target to reach.

“We’ll decide together with the club when it’s over and everyone can say if it’s good or bad, accomplished or unaccomplished, success or failure. It’s up to you, it’s not a problem.

“I’ll go somewhere else in the future and try to do it again. Nothing changed the years when I won it, or the years I didn’t win it.”